Safer - but dreaming of electricity

Wednesday 17 December 2008 19.01 EST
First published on Wednesday 17 December 2008 19.01 EST

Almost six years after British troops first arrived in Basra, locals are able to walk the city's streets free from the threat of Shia gunmen who imposed extremist Islamist views and generated uncontrolled violence.

However, most basic services are still poor and residents blame central government. Food price inflation has increased and the government's monthly food ration has worsened in quality and quantity.

In a city where temperatures soar above 45C in the summer, 24-hour electricity is still a dream - despite Basra being one of Iraq's major oil producing areas. There is also a shortage of clean tap water, forcing residents to find alternative supplies.

Water tanks can be found in many districts, delivered by local non-governmental organisations, but in some neighbourhoods and in displacement camps, some families feel forced to use water from the local river to wash clothes and cook daily meals. Open sewers and uncollected garbage have increased health risks. Traffic is often at a standstill on the city's crumbling roads.

"Sometimes I have the feeling I'm living inside a garbage dump," said Ali Maruan al-Fayed, father of three, a political analyst and teacher at Basra University. "The smell in our street is terrible, we have to burn our own trash to prevent our children getting sick. No one sees the government heading operations to improve the situation."

The government has big plans to rebuild the province's infrastructure, including communications, roads and health services, according to Tariq al-Moussawi, senior official of the Basra Reconstruction Committee, but few results can be seen.

But despite frustration with Basra's infrastructure, residents' social lives are flourishing. Waffiah Hussein, a student of economics at Basra University who had her legs burned for speaking to a cousin in public, said: "Although we have to keep wearing scarves, it is pleasant to know that at least we can mix with different people, from different sects and genders. If we did something like this before, we were going to be killed or burned."